Raiders Moving To Las Vegas

Cardinals' frequent preseason partner will be much closer to Phoenix

The Raiders are moving to Las Vegas after the NFL owners approved Monday.

The Cardinals have played 10 preseason games and five regular season games against the Raiders since 2000, nine of those games total in Oakland.

The plane trips will soon get shorter.

NFL owners approved the Raiders’ move to Las Vegas Monday – “overwhelmingly,” said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell -- during a vote at their annual spring meetings, held at the Arizona Biltmore. The Raiders are the third team in the past two years – following the Rams’ move from St. Louis to Los Angeles and the Chargers’ move from San Diego to Los Angeles – to get a new home.

“Our goal is to have 32 stable franchises,” Goodell said. “We work very hard and never want to see a relocation of a franchise.”

Unlike the Rams in 2016 and the Chargers this season, the Raiders won’t immediately leave their current home. While their new stadium is built in Nevada, Raiders owner Mark Davis plans to play the 2017 and the 2018 seasons in Oakland. The team has two one-year options for those years. The Raiders could stay there in 2019 as well, although the team does not yet have an option to play at Oakland Alameda Stadium.

The NFL had been working on fixing the stadium situation in Oakland for a number of years but finally decided it wasn’t going to work, especially with a favorable offer in Nevada.

“That’s the goal for all of us in the league, to have 32 clubs that are all strong,” said Texans owner Bob McNair, chairman of the league’s finance committee.

The Cardinals, who played in Oakland in 2014, aren’t scheduled to play the Raiders again in the regular season until 2018 – although that game will be at University of Phoenix Stadium. The Cards’ next regular-season road trip to the Raiders would be in 2022, after the move to Vegas should be complete.

But the Cards could get to Sin City sooner. The Raiders and Cardinals have met 10 times in the preseason since 2000. Last year, the Raiders visited Arizona in the preseason.

Guidelines: Please keep your comments relevant to the topic and appropriate. Abusive or combatant comments towards other fans will not be tolerated and will be removed from display on this site. Use the "Report Abuse" link to help keep the Cardinals community at its best.